All major national insurers recognize Registered Counselling Therapists. Many employers’, organizations’, and unions’ benefit plans include private practice RCTs as approved practitioners. Please check with your employer to see if your benefit plan includes counselling therapy.

Check our Private Practice List, which outlines college members who have an individual practice. Our Member Registry lists all college members. Our Member Profiles display information on members whether they have an individual practice or they practice with an employer — a health clinic, a community or government agency, or a public or private school system, for example.

Registered Counselling Therapists hold a counselling-related master’s degree as a minimum level of education. We complete 2,000 hours of supervised postgraduate clinical work which includes 800 direct therapist-client counselling hours. To maintain our license, we engage in at least 12 hours of professional development a year.

RCTs and RCT-Cs are accountable to Nova Scotia College of Counselling Therapists, the Counselling Therapists Act, and all applicable laws in Nova Scotia. The college ensures that all practicing members in the province meet and maintain licensing requirements and adhere to the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice referenced in the Act. The Nova Scotia Department of Health and Wellness introduced the Act in 2008.

The profession of counselling therapy in Nova Scotia spans over 20 years. Counselling therapists were first registered under the Societies Act (1995) and the former Nova Scotia Association of Counselling Therapists.

Yes. In many cases, employers can choose to expand a benefit plan to include private practice Registered Counselling Therapists before the plan renews.  Including RCTs in your plan helps build on today’s healthy workplace initiatives. Supporting employees’ mental health impacts operations too: when employers offer greater access to therapy services, time away from work decreases and workplace productivity increases.

Please read Register with the College. As part of the application process, you will be asked to include an official copy of your English language proficiency test, if English is an additional language for you.

Please send questions or concerns about ethics through posted mail, to the registrar, at the college’s mailing address. They will forward the query to the Ethics Committee for its consideration and response. Read the Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice to which all registered members are accountable.

NSCCT investigates complaints regarding its registered members, Registered Counselling Therapists or Registered Counselling Therapist-Candidates. Anyone can initiate a complaint by sending a letter through posted mail to the registrar. When the registrar receives a complaint, they will confirm receipt of the complaint and forward the information to the Complaints Committee to start the complaint process. For a detailed, legal description of the complaint process, please read the Counselling Therapists Act, starting at Section 31 and the Regulations, starting at Section 24.